This guide is written primarily for those who develop and implement monitoring plans for watershed management projects, but it can also be used by those who wish to evaluate the technical merits of monitoring proposals they might sponsor. It is an update to the 1997 Monitoring Guidance for Determining the Effectiveness of Nonpoint Source Controls (EPA 841-B-96-004) and includes many references to that document.
Monitoring Guide and Supplemental Material
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Monitoring and Evaluating Nonpoint Source Watershed Projects (PDF)(522 pp, 24 MB,
May 2016,
841-R-16-010)
Entire document
- Forward and Table of Contents (PDF)(30 pp, 586 K)
- Chapter 1 Overview of the Nonpoint Source Problem (PDF)(22 pp, 438 K)
- Chapter 2 Nonpoint Source Monitoring Objectives and Basic Designs (PDF)(54 pp, 2 MB)
- Chapter 3 Monitoring Plan Details (PDF)(120 pp, 10 MB)
- Chapter 3 Problem 1: Sample Size for the Estimation of Mean of Sampled Population (PDF)(1 pg, 196 K)
- Chapter 3 Problem 2: Sample size for trend estimation (PDF)(1 pg, 195 K)
- Chapter 4 Biological Monitoring of Aquatic Communities (PDF)(60 pp, 4 MB)
- Chapter 5 Photo-Point Monitoring (PDF)(30 pp, 2 MB)
- Chapter 6 Monitoring Challenges and Opportunities (PDF)(24 pp, 571 K)
- Chapter 7 Data Analysis (PDF)(118 pp, 4 MB)
- Chapter 7 Problem 1: Test for normal distribution and transformation (PDF)(3 pp, 119 K)
- Chapter 7 Problem 2: Descriptive statistics (PDF)(1 pg, 26 K)
- Chapter 7 Problem 3: Compare two groups (PDF)(1 pg, 145 K)
- Chapter 7: Problem 4: Compare input and output from an individual BMP (PDF)(2 pp, 21 K)
- Chapter 7 Problem 5: Compare more than two groups (PDF)(2 pp, 93 K)
- Chapter 7 Problem 6: Correlation and regression (PDF)(3 pp, 108 K)
- Chapter 7 Problem 7: Test for treatment effect in a paired-watershed design (PDF)(2 pp, 332 K)
- Chapter 7: Problem 8: Minimum detectable change analysis (PDF)(3 pp, 615 K)
- Chapter 8 Quality Assurance and Quality Control (PDF)(24 pp, 798 K)
- Chapter 9 Monitoring Costs (PDF)(40 pp, 668 K)
- Grabbow, 1999 (PDF)(5 pp, 3 MB)
- Suppnick 1999 (PDF)(41 pp, 21 MB)